ORILLIA - When George Smith stands outside the former Hillcrest Public School, he sees a “solid brick building” with oodles of potential.
“You could use it for all kinds of things, but don’t knock the bloody thing down,” Smith said recently.
The city plans to do just that, at a cost of about $400,000.
The demolished school will pave the way for a neighbourhood park, with the total budget for demolition and park development capped at $1 million.
And that, laments Smith, is a waste of a valuable, city-owned resource.
He supports a proposal from a local non-profit group to renovate and repurpose the building as a supportive housing complex for vulnerable seniors.
It was requesting .7 acres of the property, leaving about two acres for a park.
The group operates a similar operation across the street at Hillcrest Lodge, and says it needs city support to tap into affordable housing funding in 2013.
“They would have an economy of scale,” Smith said, noting the opportunity for shared resources between the two facilities.
He argues the northward has ample green space and that homeowners in the Hillcrest area generally enjoy larger lots than residents in other, more densely populated wards with scant parkland.
Parks situated within walking distance of the Hillcrest neighbourhood are “for the most part chronically underutilized,” he added, pointing to properties across West Street, such as the North Street and Lawrence Avenue parks.
Coun. Tony Madden, a champion of the plan for a park at the Hillcrest site, argues the area is under-serviced in terms of green space.
“It is really the only neighbourhood in the entire city that is landlocked by arterial roads without a park,” he said. “I shouldn’t expect our seniors or young children to have to cross West or Laclie streets to get to a park.”
A city consultant hired to explore uses for the property determined that a joint use – a park and seniors’ housing – “was not viable,” added Madden, a resident of the area.
“It boils down to the site’s size and the configuration of the building on the site,” he said.
Public input on the park’s design will be sought during a Jan. 23 meeting led by a landscape architect.
Demolition would likely happen in early spring, Madden said.
Smith, meanwhile, is urging residents to contact councillors and voice support for retaining the building.
“I’d like to get a consensus from people in town,” he said. “I want to try and get people to look at this and take a stand.”